A-Team plausibility question

[dvandom]

Spoilers within, regarding the final set piece in the new A-Team movie and the plausibility of one of the elements.

Okay, so in the final set piece, a single shot from a shoulder-launched rocket ends up breaking a cargo ship in half amidships. Yes, there's some secondary explosions from the containers, but it's still just one rocket.

On the other hand, a cargo ship is designed to resist diffuse forces like waves, and maybe deal with running aground. It's not designed to handle anti-armor weaponry, so it's possible that a single shot in the right place would break the keel.

Does anyone with more knowledge of either ships or anti-armor rockets know if that part of the movie is at least plausible? Or would it take several shots in exactly the right places to sink a ship like that?

Oh, and regarding the tank drop: steering certainly plausible. Slowing down...maybe. It's hard to tell how high the terminal velocity really is on just one chute, they might not have really needed to cut that much speed. But repeated firing wouldn't help any more than a single shot at the end, since the firing cycle is long enough to get back up to the new terminal velocity between shots (not that I'd expect people in a falling tank to think of that). But even if they hit softly enough to avoid destroying the tank's systems, I'm pretty sure a completely submerged tank will not drive. Unless this model is designed for limited runs on batteries or something.

Comments

[grant-p.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the movie at all, but air-dropping a small tank is actually very easy, I've seen it done in RL. Of course, you're not expecting anyone to be ON the tank when it's falling, the idea is to drop it on the right area and the troops then run to it, unstrap, and drive off. I saw Pope Air Force Base demonstrate it live, it only took seconds once it hit the ground. Pope takes pride in being able to air-drop an entire brigade if they have to, complete with full equipment, vehicles, and even a mess tent and portable hospital with surgical capabilities. Amazing people.

You can also drive a tank underwater if you attach a snorkel to the intake and exhaust. This was developed for river crossings, as tanks don't float well. You just attach the snorkel, lock down the cockpit, drive in and out, and un-seal. Most tanks are compatible with this as they are made to seal in case of chemical exposure. I've seen this done too, it looks REALLY silly, but it works.

If this is totally not what you meant, sorry! Like I said, I haven't seen this movie.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

The tank drop starts out okay, but then two of the three chutes are taken out and they start to plummet. Essentially, the cross-sectional area is cut by three, meaning the terminal velocity increases by about 70% (or more, the surviving chute was a bit shot up). And this tank had no snorkels equipped at the time, it hit a lake at high speed and then drove out.

[grant-p.livejournal.com]

In that case...no, I don't think it would work out...